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Constitution Week

Elected Officials Fail U.S. Constitution QuizBy Sam Johnson

"The fact that our
elected representatives know even less about America's history and institutions
than the typical citizen...is troubling indeed."-- Richard Brake,
co-chairman National Civic Literacy Board

Each year, September 17th is
designated by presidential proclamation as “CONSTITUTION DAY and CITIZENSHIP
DAY.” September 17-23 is called “CONSTITUTION WEEK.”

The U.S. Congress requires this through
joint resolutions passed in 1952 (36
U.S.C. 106) and 1956 (36 U.S.C. 108).

Furthermore, Congress also requires every school
(including universities) that receives federal funds, to provide an educational
program about the U.S. Constitution during this week in order to continue receiving
federal funds.

However, what
the law SHOULD require is that all elected officials take part in one of these
school programs about the U.S. Constitution in order to continue receiving their federal funds -- i.e. their
paycheck!

That's because 74 percent of elected officials who took a
survey quiz on American civics FAILED it!

U.S. Constitution Week Resources

The quiz, which
featured 33 basic civics questions, even included questions from the U.S.
Citizenship Exam -- the very test we give to foreign citizens who want to
become U.S. citizens.

No, this was not one of Jay Leno's
"Stupid American" set-ups where he ambushes unsuspecting people
walking the streets of Hollywood outside his TV studio in order to show how
dumb Americans are.

This was a project by the Intercollegiate
Studies Institute (ISI) that has for the past 5 years conducted a civics
literacy survey of over 30,000 adult Americans, then analyzed the results in
order to learn what typical Americans know about their own government.

One subset of the survey includes adults
who identified themselves as having been "successfully elected to
government office at least once in their life," including federal, state,
and local positions.

This group of elected officials
"proved particularly clueless on questions about the U.S.
Constitution."

In fact, according to Richard Brake,
co-chairman of the lSI National Civic

Civic Knowledge Quiz

Literacy Board, 20 percent of the elected
officials thought that the Electoral College was a school for "training
those aspiring for higher political office."

Additional responses by the elected
officials were equally appalling:

• Only 46 percent of the officeholders
knew that Congress, not the President, has the power to declare war, while 54
percent of the general public identified the correct answer.

• Only 15 percent of the elected officials were
able to identify the phrase "wall of separation" as NOT contained in
the U.S. Constitution, but in the letters of Thomas Jefferson.

• Only 49 percent of elected officials
could name all three branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial)
compared to 50 percent of the general public.

• And just 57 percent of the officeholders
knew what the Electoral College does, compared 66 percent of the general
public.

The final analysis of
the civics literacy survey actually showed the general public to be significantly more knowledgeable
than officeholders on several topics, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis (14 percent
difference in average score), Sputnik (11 percent difference), and the ability
to identify the "inalienable rights" of "life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness" as listed in the Declaration of Independence (13 percent
difference).Commenting on
the comparison of these results, lSI National Civic Literacy Board co-chairman,
Richard Brake observed: "Perhaps this helps explain the lack of
constitutional discipline often displayed by our political class at every level
of our system."What's more, this "lack of constitutional discipline" bi-partisan!The elected
officeholders participating in the survey identified themselves as Democrats
(40 percent), Republicans (31 percent), Independents (21 percent), with 8
percent indicating no party affiliation.The final results of
this national civics literacy survey indicated that 74 percent of the
officeholders failed the exam, compared to 71 percent of those who had not held
office.So, what can we take away
from this?Here's an idea:Perhaps during
the up-coming Congressionally prescribed "Constitution Week," elected
officeholders themselves should take part in (or better yet, conduct) the
mandated educational programs about the U.S. Constitution that are required in
our public schools and universities.